Advice please

[squiby2004]

I have concerns over DD. She turned 5 in August and has just gone into year 1. She has always been very good physically so I have no concerns over her gross motor skills. She has walked and climbed and ran and cycled well from an early age. Although I wouldn't say she was a late talker her vocab now is fantastic and is always commented upon by her teachers ect..

She was late in getting the hang of reading mainly because she point blank refused to sit and do any with me or her teachers but she is getting there now. She is now fluent in her phonic alphabet and has a good library of site words with good efforts in sounding out those she does not know. Most of the developments have been since September as H and I were not impressed with her school last year and have moved her into a all girls private school, she is in a class of 10 as opposed to 30 now.

She is not a naughty child but she is very willful e.g she never does what she is asked 1st go always required at least 2 if not 3 or 4 requests for compliance from her.

She makes friends easily and plays well, is creative and imaginative, enjoys dress up ect.. She holds eye contact some of the time but not if she does not like what you are saying.

So why am I worried I here you ask? Well feedback from her school is that she gets a lot of 1 to 1 from the TA's in class as she has a very short concentration span and her handwriting is not getting any better despite daily practice. They mentioned dyspraxia but having googled it I am not sure that she fits the profile myself. She does fidget but in my experience so do most 5 year olds! And she has only just turned 5 as well, infact she is the youngest in her class.

I posted about this on special needs and have been advised to post this here instead, does this sound like normal 5 year old development and behaviour to you? Are the schools expectations a little high for a new starter and one that is only just 5 years old and in year 1??

Thanks x

She sounds alot like my DD....but mine is November baby. Personally I think they do have high expectations at most schools these days! My daughter is at private school and no concerns have be raised about her. It could be being a girls school...maybe some of class have lenghthier concentration spans but as my DD is at mixed prep school...boys tend to have shorter concentration span anyway! As for hand writing...I think she is still so little...please don't worry...easier said than done I know!

If her gross motor skills are good then I'd say that dyspraxia isn't all that likely.

It seems a little early for the school to be worrying about her handwriting, especially as she has an August birthday.

If her handwriting isn't getting better with daily practice then I would expect the school to be looking more at what kind of practice your dd needs. If she has difficulties with fine motor skills, for example, then she might benefit more from exercises than simply tracing letter formations.

Activities that improve dexterity and manipulation can help a lot. My ds spent a few minutes each day playing with playdough. Rolling and squeezing it into shapes helped his fine motor skills. Games involve threading shapes and beads can also help.

I'm obviously not an expert but I would say that from your description sounds fairly typical of a child who has just turned 5. If you think she might need more help with fine motor skills then things like playdough can be useful.

Good luck.

It would not hurt to get her referred to an occupational therapist for an assessement of her fine motor skills - if all is good there it is one less thing to worry about, but if there is a problem at least they can offer her some help too. My DD#1 has had notable speech issues since small, and mostly just reaches the developmental milestones for motor skills at the last moment or a little later. She is only just a bit younger than your DD having turned 5 in September, but we have the advantage that she has therefore only just started reception as one of the oldest children. Anyhow, we had her OT assessed in August and it has flagged up two issues for her - fine motor skills and visual perception issues too (the ability to reproduce a shape she is shown). Thankfully we have a very supportive school for her and knowing her issues should hopefully allow us and the school every opportunity to help her in the areas she is struggling in. One feature of dyspraxia is an inability to concentrate for long too.